In the past few years, federal, state and local governments, the scientific community and the public in general have become acutely aware of the problem of handling of possibly infectious medical waste generated by hospitals and other medical treatment facilities. Because of the concern for possible adverse effects on persons who may come into contact with such waste, various regulatory agencies have acted to control and direct the handling of such waste. In addition, the Congress of the United States has enacted the Medical Waste Tracking Act which is being evaluated in several states. This Act mandates that medical waste be rendered unrecognizable from its original state and be decontaminated or disinfected before disposal.
The transportation and disposal of untreated medical waste presents an expensive and potentially hazardous situation. Moreover, the storage of such waste until such time as it can be properly handled involves serious logistic problems. Some hospitals generate tons of such waste every week and find it extremely difficult and expensive to handle it in such a way as to avoid violation of the Act and, more importantly, to avoid injury to any persons who may come into contact with the waste. In addition, treatments presently available for decontaminating such waste to the extent that it can be transported and disposed of in landfills or other waste disposal facilities have become extremely expensive and difficult.